Two important criteria of any voting system are voter privacy and ballot security Voter privacy is ensured when the voter's name is not attached to his or her ballot. Ballot security is accomplished different ways, with a traditional method for providing security at the voting site being limiting access to ballots by persons handling them.
A traditional method for controlling access of voters to voting booths is to intercept voters as they enter the voting place. At that time, voting personnel verify that each voter's name is on a master list of registered voters in the voting district and that they have not already voted in that election. This verification and certification process is slow and potentially inaccurate. It does have the advantage of maintaining the privacy of the voting booth because voters, names are not associated with the voting process once they are allowed access to the booths.
A traditional method for casting ballots in the voting booth is to switch mechanical levers next to the voters' desired selections presented on a printed ballot form. Alternatively, the voters punch holes or pencil-in spots on a computer card, each hole or spot representing a selection on the ballot, and the cards are then machine read. These methods are slow and potentially inaccurate and, in the case of punched holes, provide no way for voters to change their minds. Additionally, the pre-printed forms become unwieldy if the ballots must be presented in additional languages, such as Spanish or French.
A number of different types of automated voting systems have been used, which use computers to aid in gathering and counting votes. These systems include systems such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,774,665, which describes a system having a number of precinct workstations for reading, counting, and storing votes, and a central district workstation for controlling the programming of the precinct stations and for reading and tallying stored precinct votes.
However, existing automated voting systems do not provide an integrated system. For example, where automated vote entry devices are used, there is no means for controlling access to them. Nor do existing systems solve the problems associated with unauthorized access to the system. Although most systems attempt to limit access by unauthorized persons, they do not provide a means for detecting a security breach. A need exists for an improved automated voting system.